User administration

I love to keep track of all the entry's that fill up my messages [grin]. In the early days I always
issued cat -n 30 /var/log/messages to get the last 30 lines of messages. Because
I was tired of entering it over and over I created an alias. For this you need to add the following
line to /etc/bashrc

You can remove files on a daily basis. I use this feature for the files that I backup to an archive-directory.
Without control, this directory would grow out of size after a while. I remove all files that are older than
4 days. You can easily do this with :

There's a way in which you can speed up the performance of your harddisk. But please...be cautious
because this could really screw up your machine and could result in a loss of data
(as I experienced!). Before you start, reboot your machine in single-user-mode!!

The tool to use is : hdparm. First of all, you can review the default performance with

hdparm -tT /dev/hda/

Now, set 32-bit I/0 support on together with multi-read :

hdparm -c3 -m16 /dev/hda

Check the results again with hdparm -tT /dev/dha

Next, set unmaskriq and use dma on

hdparm -u1 -d1 /dev/hda

Again, check the results. The last speed-up thing could be to use another DMA-mode. For further
details, please refer to the man-page.

hdparm -X34 -d1 -u1 /dev/hda

In stead of X34, you could also use : X66.

When you want to save these settings, edit the file /etc/sysconfig/harddisk and change
the appropriate value.

Allthough running GNU/Linux prevents you from being infected with the latest vbs-virus, there are some nasty bugs out there.
By using chkrootkit you can check your system for rootkits. Download the script from
http://www.chkrootkit.org/, untar the file and compile it
(with make sense). For the upmost security, run this script from a secured host through a cron-job.

-u is your username on the ftpserver and -p is the corresponding password.-V means no output (because we're running from cron. -DD deletes the local file
when the upload was succesful. Next we find the remote-hostname, the remote-path and the local file.

Redhat 8 and 9 install UTF-8 as the default character encoding. This gives you a problem when you try to remotely use an application
that uses ncurses (for example 'setup'). You can solve this problem by disable the file i18n.

When I installed Gentoo Linux from the CD I had the impression that my hard-disk performance was very low.
In fact, when I checked the HD-settings with hdparm, it turned out that dma-mode was turned off. When I
tried to turn it on I received this error

A bit of fiddling arouned learned me that the IDE-driver that was loaded was the 'generic' driver. When you look
in the kernel-configuration under 'IDE...' you will find several possible extra drivers. To find out which one you need,
take a look at the output of cat /proc/pci. Chances are big that you are using

IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A

Just mark the vt82cxxxx IDE driver, recompile your kernel and give it a try!

Fortune : The Priest's grey nimbus in a niche where he dressed discreetly.I will not sleep here tonight. Home also I cannot go. A voice, sweetened and sustained, called to him from the sea.Turning the curve he waved his hand. A sleek brown head, a seal's, farout on the water, round. Usurper. -- James Joyce, "Ulysses"